A couple of weeks ago, we had “End of Sentence,” with John Hawkes as a widower and Logan Lerman as his estranged son, who are forced to take a road trip due to circumstances beyond their control. Now comes “Sometimes Always Never,” with Bill Nighy as a widower and Sam Riley as his estranged son, who are forced to take a road trip due to circumstances beyond their control.
The latter film plays in a lighter key, but like its predecessor, this is a subtly effective, well-written, beautifully acted character piece that breezes by in approximately an hour and a half and leaves you smiling. Also, if you happen to be into Scrabble, you’re gonna love this movie, as it’s the vehicle that keeps the story humming.
Bill Nighy does his Bill Nighy thing — putting a unique spin on every line without overplaying it, waving his hands about like a conductor, conveying so much with an arch of an eyebrow or a withering glance — as Alan, a dapper and sophisticated tailor who is socially awkward and blunt to the point of being somewhere on the spectrum, though he wouldn’t put it that way. For years, Alan has been wandering about North Yorkshire, putting up flyers and asking the locals if they’ve seen his son Michael, who stormed out of the house after a bitter argument over a Scrabble game and hasn’t been seen since. When out-of-town authorities discover a body that roughly matches the description of Michael, Alan and his resentful younger son Peter (Sam Riley) take a road trip, during which they constantly bicker and drive each other mad.
Once they’re back home, Alan essentially moves in with Peter and his family and becomes obsessed with playing Scrabble online, convinced one of his opponents is in fact Michael, communicating with him via wordplay.
Director Carl Hunter infuses “Sometimes Always Never” with creative visual touches, whether he’s using graphics to illustrate certain Scrabble words, or shooting a poignant scene through a patterned glass door, so we feel the emotions of the character in question just through the movement of his silhouette. Even the ostensibly ordinary homes of Alan and Peter are marvels of production design, from the incongruously bright-colored walls to such inexplicable artwork as a framed portrait of a dog hanging on a wall for no given reason.
The mystery of Michael’s disappearance often takes a backseat to the primary story of the complicated relationship between Alan and Peter — and it provides an excuse for us to meet Margaret and Arthur, a long-married couple whose own son has been missing for years. Tim McInnerny is brilliant as the closed-off, nearly catatonic Arthur, who was once semi-famous as a singer who covered pop tunes such as Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s a Heartache,” and Jenny Agutter gives a nomination-worthy performance as the lonely and passionate Margaret, who finds a kindred spirit in Alan.
“Sometimes Always Never” is a reference to Alan’s code about wearing a three-button suit: Sometimes you button the top button, you always button the middle button, and you never button the bottom button. (Say that three times fast!) It’s also an apt description of Alan himself. Sometimes he’s infuriating. He’s always interesting. And he’s never anything but entertaining.
